Snow and Ice Slams the Midwest and Northeast

This unusual and even historical winter storm continues to impact the Midwest while it also brings snow and ice to portions of the Northeast this Sunday and into the first half of the upcoming week. This storm has been a record-breaker for many locations. That includes Green Bay, Wisconsin where over 11 inches of snow has fallen, beating the April calendar record of 10 inches set back on April 15, 1904. That’s a 114-year-old record. In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 13.7 inches of snow fell on April 14th from this storm. That shatters the daily and monthly highest snow records. and also breaks the total monthly snowfall record by over 6 inches! Finally, in Minneapolis, 11.1″ of snow fell Saturday, which made it the second snowiest April day in 80 years of records at Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport. Ironically, the record was set 35 years ago to the date, which was when 13.6 inches of snow fell.

Now looking ahead to the forecast, the storm will continue strong this Sunday. Winter Storm Warnings and even Blizzard Warning are in place for portions of the Upper Midwest and western Great Lakes regions. The heaviest of snow will fall across northern Wisconsin into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan while a lighter snow with embedded rounds of heavier snow persist across portions of Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin throughout this Sunday. Lighter snow showers are even expected to swing through northern Missouri and Illinois. A city like Chicago may experience periods of snow this afternoon and tonight, but little to no accumulation is expected. Speaking of tonight, drier air as the low pressure continues to occlude will allow for the snow to gradually come to an end across much of the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes.

Further east, ice and sleet will be pummeling portions of the Great Lakes and Northeast regions. A lot of sleet and some freezing rain is forecast for much of Lower Michigan and possibly along the immediate western coast of Lake Michigan up through the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Sleet and freezing rain are also forecast to occur through much of Sunday from Update New York through a large area of northern New England. Further south, rain showers will move in by the evening hours and will persist overnight, but as that moisture runs into freezing air at the surface, that will allow for periods of freezing rain to fall across portions of northeastern Pennsylvania, central and Upstate New York, the hills of northern Connecticut, much of Massachusetts (except for southeastern MA, the islands, and Cape Cod), and the higher elevations of Vermont and New Hampshire. This will be an elevation-driven event, so the valleys and the coasts are not expected to deal with any wintry precipitation. In some of the higher elevations where freezing rain is forecast, over a quarter of an inch of accretion is possible. Some road issues are possible beginning Sunday night, mainly in the highest of elevations, due to the icing conditions.By Monday morning, lingering snow showers are expected in Wisconsin and parts of Michigan. Snow showers are possible throughout the Ohio Valley on Monday and some snow squalls may even make it down into Tennessee Valley and the southern Appalachian Mountains. Further east, rain should changeover to snow in western Pennsylvania and New York. Freezing rain is also possible at times on Monday in northern New England in the higher elevations while a plain rain affects the I-95 corridor and surrounding areas.

On Tuesday, we’ll actually still be talking about snow. Some of this will be lake-effect or lake-enhanced snow, especially off from Lakes Ontario and Erie. Snow showers are forecast across much of the Great Lakes region and even into western Pennsylvania and central New York. Up to 3 inches snow may fall in isolated locations on Tuesday alone near Lakes Ontario and Erie.

By Wednesday, this storm will clear out of the United States — finally!

Jackson is Head of Content at WeatherOptics and produces several forecasts and manages all social media platforms. Previously, Jackson forecasted local weather for southwestern Connecticut, founding his website, Jackson's Weather, in the March of 2015. He is currently studying Meteorology and Broadcast Journalism at the University of Miami.